ATLANTA—After all the anarchy of the 2012-13 college basketball season, after five different teams traded the No. 1 position in the AP poll over the course of four and a half months, after the team holding that ranking as the NCAA Tournament began was eliminated just two games in, after the historic TCU upset over Kansas and the three-way tie for the Big East championship and the nearly four-way tie in the Big Ten and the five-overtime game, after one Final Four coach was fired just weeks removed from winning a conference title and the Final Four coach who beat that coach in the NCAAs also was dismissed, who might have imagined the conclusion to this spectacle would be so conventional?

No. 1 vs. No. 1: Michigan, which fields the best offense in NCAA basketball, battling Louisville, which plays the best defense, Monday at 9:23 p.m. at the Georgia Dome.

Well, that’s not wacky at all.

This is more or less as it’s supposed to be—a couple of excellent basketball teams working to determine whose strengths can be made to matter more, whose weaknesses can be most ably disguised.

“It’s going to be about skill, obviously, games are played to your talent and things like that,” Michigan All-American point guard Trey Burke said Sunday. “But at the end of the day it’s going to come down to a battle of will: Who hits the floor first for loose balls? Who’s boxing out more? Who’s getting the stops in the critical moments? Our team is playing at its peak right now, as well as Louisville.”

Michigan has the most efficient offense in college basketball according to the KenPom.com website that’s become such an important statistical resource in the game. The Wolverines (31-7) rank seventh in percentage of field goals converted and near the top in points scored and 3-point accuracy.

Louisville has the most efficient defense according to KenPom. The Cardinals (34-5) rank in the top 30 in field goal defense, the top 20 in scoring defense and No. 2 in turnovers forced.

It is not by accident these teams have come to accentuate these particular qualities. Louisville’s offense often has depended on forcing turnovers because the Cardinals only recently discovered even one reliable deep shooter, reserve Luke Hancock, they don’t have an unstoppable low-post scorer and there isn’t an athletic wing who can attack off the dribble. Michigan’s defensive development has been, shall we say, gradual because Burke is not an extraordinary physical presence against the basketball, there has not been an elite shot-blocker to protect the rim and using three freshmen so extensively has not allowed the Wolverines to cover for those deficiencies with institutional knowledge.

It is possible, though, things have changed on both sides, that neither is quite the team that it was through most of the season.

Defensively, Louisville’s depth was impacted by the absence of reserve guard Kevin Ware, who broke his leg in the regional final. Wichita State committed only two turnovers in the first half against Cardinals guards Russ Smith and Peyton Siva, who appeared to be far less aggressive as they conserved energy and fouls.

“Guys were afraid to foul, and their pressure relented until we obviously had to try to win the game,” coach Rick Pitino said. “They were all trying to play very cautious, didn’t get after people. Russ and Peyton were being overly cautious.”

Offensively, Michigan has seen Burke make just 25.8 percent of his 3-pointers during the tournament. Syracuse seemed to serve up the ideal gameplan for the Cardinals to use against him in the title game.

“Well, if I grow to 6-7, and Peyton gets to 6-5 and we play 2-3 zone—that zone bothers a lot of people,” Smith said. “We know how good Burke is. We just have to be prepared for what he’s getting ready to bring.”

Each team has improved on the other end of the ball, however. Since Hancock recovered from a shoulder issue and broke out with a 4-of-5 effort from 3-point range to help rescue a road win at Syracuse in early March, he has averaged 10 points and hit 50 percent of his 3-point shots. The Cardinals have gone 11-0 in that stretch. Hancock has produced this transformational surge, which included a season-best 20 points that essentially saved the season in Saturday’s Wichita State game, while his father has been battling poor health.

Whereas Hancock has remained in a reserve role but seen his minutes expand, Michigan dramatically altered the personality of its team by inserting freshman Mitch McGary into the starting lineup at the beginning of the tournament. He is vastly more talented than junior Jordan Morgan, superior as a shot-blocker, rebounder and physical presence but had to learn how to play his position responsibly.

With McGary in the lineup and getting most of the minutes, the Wolverines still have not been a great field-goal defense team. They’ve allowed opponents to shoot 44.6 percent during the tournament, as opposed to Louisville’s 40.7 percent. But Michigan’s tourney victims averaged only 61.8 points and gathered just 24.8 percent of offensive rebounds.

“That’s been the key to our team,” Burke said. “Mitch McGary has definitely been our best player over the last couple of weeks. He’s been our most critical player. A lot of people don’t give us credit for the way we’ve been guarding, really. That was our main issue during the year. That was the main issue why we were losing certain games—why we lost to Penn State. It came down to defensive stops. We weren’t playing as tough as we are now. I think this team finally gets it. The stats may not say it due to the way we were playing during the regular season, but as far as in the moment right now I definitely think we’re playing our best defense.”

If Michigan wins, it will establish or tie some statistical precedents. Since statistician Ken Pomeroy began publishing efficiency numbers in 2003, no team has won the NCAA championship with a defensive rank lower than 19th. UM enters the Louisville game at 32nd. No champion in the past 15 years allowed opponents to convert more than 42.3 percent of its field goals. Only the 2009 North Carolina team did as poorly. Of the 15 champs in that stretch, 10 held the opposition below the 40-percent mark.

“If a team has a defensive field goal percentage of under 40, I know they really guard people,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “I wish ours was under 40.”

By the time Michigan finishes playing against Louisville, it will have faced four of this season’s top 10 defenses and five of the top 20. There has been no opportunity to relax, even for a team with an offense as productive as UM’s.

“While I think a prep in one day has some effect,” Beilein said, “it’s not as significant as what you’ve been prepping for all year long … Play with your eyes up, pivot strong, pass strong, space the floor, really hit the open man, play as a team. Those things we’ve been stressing from the beginning.

“If we can do one more, just one more game where we can put 60 to 70 points up there—we could have a W if we can up those number of points.”

That might seem easy enough. Michigan has the No. 1 offense in the game. It will not be easy. Louisville has the No. 1 defense. No. 1 vs. No. 1. Just like we expected all along.